Man and Animal lesson blocks

This past year we did two lesson blocks focused on zoology.  Waldorf takes a very unique approach to studying about animals which I really like.  In the first block, we spent four weeks talking about how animals and both like and unlike humans.  We learned that many animals specialize in one or a few traits, like speed, strength, or incredible eyesight.  Humans, even incredible talented ones, do not do this in the same way that animals do.  Humans, however, have something that animals don't have, they have hands.  So, while a cheetah might be able to run fast, humans have the intelligence and also the HANDS to create a car that can go fast.  Animals do have paws, but the are not used in the way that human hands are used for creating things and for serving other people.  Also, humans are the only ones who walk upright.  Of course some animals, like some apes, can be upright and can even walk or run for a short distance on only two paws--and some of them can use their front paws as hands in rudimentary ways, but it is nothing compared to the way that humans do so.  Walking upright and being able to use our hands are two of the main things that set us apart from animals.

In Waldorf education, there is a continual focus on the Threefold Human Being, meaning the interplay of head, heart, and hands in our humanness.  Head represents the intellect, heart represents the emotions, and hands represent the will.  In looking at the animal world, we looked at how different animals tend to showcase one of these aspects, but humans integrate all three.  We first looked at our own bodies and how we have three main areas of our bodies--our heads, where our thoughts reside and where we take in impressions from the world through our eyes, ears, nose, mouth, etc.; our trunks, in which our lungs and heart reside for breathing and our rhythmic life, as well as being the center of our emotions (think about it, where do you "feel" it when you are angry or passionate about something); and our limbs that help us be upright and allow us to create and serve.   In Waldorf-speak, the limbs are also associated with the metabolic and digestive systems of the body.   We then looked at animals whose seemed to showcase different aspects of this either in their physical body make-up or more in their "presence" in the world.  For example, cephalopods (not sure I'm spelling that right and I'm too lazy to go look it up!) like the cuttlefish have bodies that are basically a huge head and not much  more.  But birds like the eagle represent the thinking aspect of human beings.  Of course eagles do not "think" or have intellect like humans do, but in an imaginative way, they capture the idea of what thinking is all about.


Dallin's title page.


Our schoolroom last October during this block.


The mouse is a great example of an animal that represents the nerve-sense system.  When you picture a mouse, it is one little ball of nerves, and the animal seems to be completely driven by it's senses, often to it's detriment.  But shape-wise, the mouse seems to be all trunk.


Beeswax harvest mice we made.


The lion represents the "heart" or the rhythmic system.  I have to smile at this painting, you cannot possibly imagine all the angst on the part of a 10-year-old that went in to creating it last fall.  But yesterday when he saw it, Dallin exclaimed, "Oh, that looks so cool, I really did a good job on that, didn't I?"


An acrostic poem about eagles that Dallin wrote.


Dallin's drawing of the three-fold human being with three animals we chose to represent those aspects--the eagle for thinking, the lion for emotion, and the bull for willing. 

This first block was more of an imaginative, philosophical, and spiritual approach to looking at animals.  It was very deep, from the teacher's perspective.  It was also a great deal of information and thought to figure out how to present to a 10-year-old.  I will definitely do some things differently the next time I teach this.  I was working from three or four different Waldorf teachers' materials, and each approached it in a different way.  I think now that I went through the year and saw how teaching it played out, I have a better idea for next time of how I think it works the best.  What I loved most about this block was seeing what a fabulous creator God is.  To see all these patterns and types among his creations and how it all fits together is just amazing!

Our second Man and Animal block was more of a traditional zoology block.   We started with sea creatures and fish, then moved through the different categories of animals.  The only thing we didn't cover was insects, because we did four weeks on insects two years ago.

Sea Creatures and Fish


My coral reef scene.  It took me a week to complete this, therefore I didn't do any other chalk drawings during the month.


Mom's painting.


I gave Dallin free reign over his painting, and he was very creative and did a jellyfish in the ocean.  If you look very carefully, you can see the jellyfish in the lefthand portion of the painting.


Dictated summary about coral reefs.

Reptiles


This was with non-hardening clay.  It's very easy to work with, but you can't really save your creations because they never dry.  Dallin's crocodile is on the left, mine is in the middle, and Sariah's frog is on the right.


Copywork:  a poem about pythons, illustrated.

Birds


The book Drawing From the Book of Nature had some really helpful suggestions on how to draw birds easily.  Above are mine.


These were Dallin's.  Another example of a very tense art session, but he came back yesterday and exclaimed over how good these looked.

Mammals

There are so many ways to categorize mammals.  We looked basically at ungulates, carnivores, and rodents, focusing mainly on the different types of teeth these animals have.  Next time I think I will present things in terms of herbivores, carnivores, and omnivores.


Copywork and illustration:  an elephant poem.


My painting of elephants, inspiration from the Christopherus curriculum.

When we got to carnivores, we mainly covered the cat and dog families and talked about the different wild and domesticated animals that are members of each.


Again, Drawing From the Book of Nature by Dennis Klocek is an excellent resource for learning how to draw animals.  It also has great information to use in teaching about them.


These are Mom's drawings.  Dallin drew a good dog and cat, but my photos didn't turn out very well.

When we learned about rodents, we made beaver habitats with clay beavers.  All three children had a great time being involved with this.  We made the ground out of salt dough that I tinted with food coloring, then they painted the water, grass, etc.








Dallin's work.


Sariah's creation.

In our spring block, we went on several field trips.  We went to the aquarium, but I didn't get any pictures.  Our next stop was the zoo. 











This is pretty much all Preston wanted to do at the zoo.

Our final field trip was to the Ogden Nature Center, which I highly recommend as it is very inexpensive and a WONDERFUL place to hang out for an afternoon.

You are welcomed in to the center by a neat collection of bird houses.






Loved this little gnome-looking cottage.

But I was also kind of partial to these bird apartments made by a den of Cub scouts.




The resident pelican.  There were also eagles, owls, and hawks that were in care due to injuries.


Wild turkeys roamed around.


Trying out the eagle's nest.


Looking through a bird blind.

Preston's only interest was throwing rocks into the water.

 

 

Spying these tortoises in the wild was the highlight of the day!  (They weren't really that close to us, I had to use the camera's zoom.)

 

 

Seeing these mother Canadian Geese with their goslings was another thrill!

Dallin especially really loved this place.  I love that he is so at home in nature, especially for such an intense and active kid.  Nature is the one thing that really seems to calm him, and he thrives in it.  I feel like this is one of my successes as a parent, honing a love of nature in my children and seeing what it gives to them.  He was in absolute heaven here, and he was the one telling the other kids to be quiet so they could hear and see more birds and animals.  Funniest quote of the day happened after I mentioned that there were supposed to be foxes here, but we probably wouldn't see any during the day time.  Sariah started to freak out, but Dallin matter-of-factly comforted her:  "Don't worry Sariah, foxes are members of the dog family, so it's OK."  I was thrilled that he was showing off something he learned this past month!  (Although I'm not sure Sariah got much comfort out of his observation.)

Writing in this block consisted of several things.  We did some traditional summaries during the first block, as well as dictations and copywork.  In the second block, we also did dictations and copied a few poems and made charts comparing aspects of various animal species.  One thing we did during the second block was a weekly free-write on the animal of his choice from that week.  Free-write means just that, he could write ANYTHING he wanted to about that animal, factual or not.  I'm working with a program called BraveWriter which I think will be very helpful in getting Dallin to overcome his dislike of writing.  So far it is working wonders.  He loves these freewriting exercises!  It has opened a whole new door to creativity, and I'm finding that I have a pretty amazing little writer on my hands when we get rid of some of the constraints.  Maybe I will post what he wrote about beavers after he copies it this next week, though it would make some people roll over in their graves, I'm sure.  We did freewriting once a week for four weeks, then I had him choose one to revise, which basically consisted of further freewrites to expand on certain sections of the story.  He has had so much fun and actually BEGS for more time on the timer when we do this.  (I set the timer and he writes whatever he wants for that length of time with no concerns about spelling, grammar, etc.)